The National Transportation Safety Board blames human error and equipment failures for an anchor strike that dented the Line Five pipelines. Attorney General Dana Nessel says the report is evidence the twin pipelines needs to be removed from the Great Lakes.
The NTSB report says the vessel was short-staffed during the Easter weekend as a technical malfunction allowed an anchor to drag on the lakebed. It struck Line Five and the pipelines were dented.
Kelly Rossman-McKinney is the attorney general’s communications director. She says the 2018 incident is further proof Line 5 needs to be shut down.
“We are really just an, I mean seriously, an anchor strike, a total unintended anchor strike, away from devastation in the Great Lakes.”
An Enbridge spokesman says the company is standing by its proposal to replace a section of Line 5 and encase it in a tunnel under the lakebed. Governor Whitmer says she wants a deal on the future of Line 5 by June 10th.